IRS Files for Sale

by J. Orlin Grabbe

You want a copy of someone's IRS file? It'll cost you $500.
That was the going price for files sold by IRS employees at Covington, KY.

In a previous post, "Is the IRS Dealing Crack?," I reported the
indictment of five IRS employees for selling crack cocaine. That wasn't
all they were selling.

"Those employees had no access to files," the office of public
information told me.

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"I read their job descriptions," was the reply. And then the
IRS information officer explained to me that in any case there was an
"audit" trail in the computer system that showed any unauthorized access.

Well, not surprisingly, I was being fed a load of bull. For it
turns out there is an audit trail that shows access to the file area
from remote locations outside the Covington office. But when files are
accessed from within the Covington office itself, there is no audit trail.

One investigator was apparently able to purchase files for $500
each. This price was not negotiable. The purchases were made inside the
fence-enclosed employee parking lot. The files obtained had been printed
out on one of the office laser printers.

Certain CPAs (Certified Public Accountants) in that part of the
country allegedly acted as intermediaries, and let their clients know that
IRS files were available for the right price.

The IRS seems to have taken a leaf from the White House notebook:
abuse of files and cocaine. As previously reported, President Bill Clinton
does "five plus" lines of cocaine per day. The White House Office Data
Base (WHODB, or "Big Brother") contains about 2045 FBI files of political
enemies and similar people in whom the White House is interested.

Many questions about crack-dealing, file-selling IRS employees
remain. Such as, Who were the IRS employees selling crack cocaine to?

How many other IRS employees are regular cocaine users?

(Rumors that the IRS is preparing new 1040 forms with a box
allowing one dollar donations to the Cali cartel could not be confirmed.)